The island known locally as Christmas Tree Island earned its nickname from the Australian pine trees that took root there in the 1950s and '60s, but the island's true name, Wisteria, is a tribute to a lighthouse tender that sank off its shores in a 1919 hurricane.

Wisteria Island has come under scrutiny again, as developers work to establish a managed mooring field off its beaches, and built 70 luxury residences on its 21 acres.

Some local historic preservationists oppose the development, and want to protect the historic wreck of the Wisteria that remains there.

"That wreck is almost 100 years old, and is one of the best places to snorkel in Key West when the winds are too high at Sand Key," said Nils Muench, who sits on the city's Historic Architectural Review Commission and is a founding member of the recently organized Save Wisteria Island committee.

Muench is concerned that the proposed development will destroy the wreck and make it inaccessible.

He is working with Enid Torregrosa, the city's historic preservation specialist, to determine what, if anything, can be done to protect the wreck -- and the memory of a ship that served two masters.

The 167-foot Wisteria was built in Delaware in 1882 for the U.S. Lighthouse District. It tended lighthouses in Charleston, S.C., and Portland, Maine, until it was decommissioned in 1911 and transferred to the Maritime Hospital Service, a precursor to today's Public Health Service, according to a 1998 article in the Florida Keys Sea Heritage Journal.

The Wisteria arrived in Key West in 1911 and was moored in an area about 650 yards offshore called Frankfort Bank, where an island eventually would grow out of mounds of dredged material taken from Key West Harbor.

The ship served as a hospital and quarantine center to keep infectious and contagious diseases out of the general island population. The ship sank in 1919, but remained upright and was still used for quarantine in the 1920s, until the Public Health Service abandoned it.

A local shark-processing company then used the decks of the Wisteria for skinning sharks and curing hides, according to a 1992 article in the Florida Keys Sea Heritage Journal.

The Wisteria burned to its waterline in 1933 and much of it eventually was covered with dredge material, although Muench maintains that the iron skeleton is easily visible in about seven feet of water.

Tom Hambright, a historian at the Monroe County Library in Key West, is familiar with the wreck, but on Friday said he didn't know how much of the wreck remained visible today.

Hambright has a photo of Wisteria Island taken in the late 1940s during World War II. At the time, there were no trees on the speck of marl, Hambright said.

The island has since grown in size due to the accumulation of dredged fill and the existence of a natural shoal, he said.

"In 1933, there was already a natural shoal there, and they added to it by dumping dredged material there, forming the island," Hambright said.

Muench wants to pursue the preservation and protection of the shipwreck that became an island.

"That wreck will be destroyed if we don't protect it," Muench said.

mmiles@keysnews.com